Europeans explained every unfamiliar people as a lost tribe of Israel

Evidence

As Tudor Parfitt has rightly pointed out, “From the very beginning of European expansion Judaism was employed in the decipherment of religions and Jews were used as likely explanations for the peoples Europeans encountered.” This was certainly the case with the Americans in the New World. From the fifteenth century on, the idea that certain peoples were descended from ancient Israel or from some specific tribe of the Lost Tribes of Israel became astonishingly widespread and was attached to just about every corner of the globe and to a wide variety of peoples, from the Eskimos to the Australian aborigines. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 347 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Kolb claimed that the customs of the Hottentots were similar to those of the Jews. He enumerated what he saw as the similarities between their sacrificial customs, their moon festivals, circumcision rites, and soon. But he also asserted that the Hottentots could be counted among the children of Abraham, that they were of Jewish descent. Specifically he maintained that they were descended from Abraham via the troglodytes, issue of his wife Ketura (Gen. 25: 1–4). Further proof of this was adduced from the fact that, like the Jews, they were so resistant to Christianity. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 328 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: European explorers explained unfamiliar peoples as descendants of the Lost Tribes — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 347; Europeans projected Jews onto unknown peoples to explain, save, and rank them. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 305; Colonists explained new peoples by mapping Europe’s Jew and Moor stereotypes onto them — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 340 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• European explorers explained unfamiliar peoples as descendants of the Lost Tribes #corroborates (0.98) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 347
• Europeans classified southern African peoples as descendants of biblical Jews #exemplifies (0.93) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 328